This Sunday we light the candle of peace, and I think it is the most difficult fruit of the Spirit for me to cultivate. Peace comes from knowing God (through Jesus) and allowing myself to be known by Him – nothing hidden, nothing held back. I have such a hard time with this! Some of it is my temperament – I am an introvert, and I have never been overly conversational or a good “sharer.” I am much more likely to hang back and watch or listen to the conversations of others rather than taking part myself. I also grew up very much aware that as a PK (pastor’s kid) people were always watching me. Church people watched to make sure I was “behaving,” unchurched folks watched to see if I would embarrass myself or fall off whatever wagon they thought I was on. I am aware that my loving heavenly Father watches over me with completely different motives, but a habit made is hard to break. Reeeeeally hard!

When I withhold myself, or parts of myself, from my heavenly Father, I can’t really rest in Him like the Scripture encourages me to do, and I am tempted to give in to the urge to fret or fuss over things I cannot control – my health, our finances, future, etc. (see Psalm 113). There is no peace in this lifestyle, only anxiety. But when I relinquish control of my life and yield everything to Him, peace returns and floods my soul and worry once again takes a back seat. I can relax and cease striving because I am surrendered to the Lord and He has promised to make my paths straight when I submit to Him (see Proverbs 3). Hope and joy and love are more evident in me when I live this way – I guess because the fruit of the Spirit is all related. Faith grows stronger too, and obedience helps me to yield more good fruit.

I imagine that I am not alone in my struggle to let God have all of me. I just wonder how much greater our lights would shine in this dark, dark world – how much more godly influence we would have in it - if we were all able to yield to our Father and be filled with His overflowing, incomprehensible peace. What would the world look like at Christmas time? At any time?

See you in worship on Sunday!

Careen